Be gentle with your students, profs. Dial back your requirements and expectations as much as you possibly can, and let them know you're willing to work with them if they're still too much to carry.
"My class is not the most important thing in your lives, and shouldn't be" is something I've been telling my students for years. It's something every professor should be telling their students—somehow, in a way that makes it clear they mean it—right now.
"Don't put your health or your safety or your relationships or your obligations to other people in jeopardy for this class. If you have to choose between this class and any of that, don't choose the class. Ever."
And that doesn't mean "if you have to take a lower grade, it's okay, grades aren't everything," either. It means "I'll work with you to make sure you get you the grade that you need without compromising the other stuff."
My students keep coming to me asking whether I'm going to dock them points for missing video lessons, and what the final exam is going to look like, how quizzes are going to be graded. Some of these same students are going to work every day, putting their lives at risk.
We owe it to our students to make them understand that the one thing that it is within our power to make okay will be okay.
